Big year for European opera

The year 2013 saw musical tributes paid to two of the greatest talents from the world of opera: Richard Wagner from Germany and Giuseppe Verdi from Italy.

China Opera House presented Wagner's Die Walkure, a work that was last performed in Beijing in 2005, and in Shanghai in 2010, by visiting companies from Germany. The production made history by being the first ever full-length Wagner opera produced and cast domestically.

Led by artistic director Yu Feng, the traditional production premiered in July at the National Center for the Performing Arts with a young and enthusiastic cast. The defiant Brunnhilde was sung by Wang Wei and Li Shuang played the ill-fated Siegmund.

In a country known for outstanding instrumentalists rather than notable heldentenors (a German term for singers who can convincingly perform the heroic tenor roles in German opera), the Chinese version of Die Walkure was a significant marker in the cultural landscape of opera in China. But it was the production of Wagner's last opera, Parsifal, that really impressed music lovers in 2013.

Parsifal was brought to China as part of a co-production between Beijing Music Festival and Salzburg Easter Festival. It was conducted by maestro Gustav Kuhn with a star-studded international cast. Michaela Schuster played Kundry, a role she debuted in Salzburg in March, where I was an attentive listener. The China Philharmonic Orchestra was at its best in the pit creating a force field over the Poly Theater.

The co-production gave some insight as to how European-style opera can appeal to a domestic audience. Directed by Michael Schulz and designed by Alexander Polzin, the idiosyncratic, self-reflective production full of stage extras received mixed reviews at its world premiere but met with a unanimous, generous acclaim from Chinese audiences and critics.

One has to face up to the fact that artistic conservatism is the bane of the majority of opera stages in China, but traditional staging is what is embraced by government departments. Because most opera houses are either substantially subsidized - including the NCPA and China Opera House where fancy staging is most likely to be seen - or self-reliant - like Guangzhou Opera House and Shanghai Grand Theater where conventional staging sells better - any great risk onstage is viewed as troublesome.

The three major Verdi entries produced in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou fell into this category. Placido Domingo made his China operatic debut in Nabucco, an NCPA production, in May. US conductor Eugene Kohn led the orchestra.

It was followed in September by the Royal Opera House Covent Garden's legendary 1994 production of La Traviata directed by Richard Eyre at Guangzhou Opera House. It was the opera's second Chinese production, and was conducted by Daniel Oren with Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra in the pit.

Like Lorin Maazel, Daniel Oren might call China his second home. He then conducted the China premiere of Verdi's early experimental Attila in November in Shanghai, a co-production between the Palace of Arts Budapest and Shanghai Grand Theater directed by Csaba Kael with simplistic and effective staging.

How could one ever miss Benjamin Britten? If 2013 was a big moment for Wagner and Verdi, it proved a grand year for Britten.

With his community opera Noye's Fludde presented in its first ever outdoor setting in the financial district in Shanghai in July, two of his groundbreaking works received China premieres in October. They are Peter Grimes conducted by British talent Duncan Ward with the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert version at BMF, The War Requiem conducted by Charles Dutoit with Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and London Voices and a trio of brilliant singers at Shanghai Oriental Art Center and later in Beijing.

I was at the concert that night in Shanghai. It was Oct 3. The neighboring Century Park had fireworks at 8 pm for the National Day Holiday, as it does every year.

As Lacrimosa was just about to fade away, the grumbling of the fireworks, sounding like a gun salute, sounded outside the auditorium just as the music was dying out.

A war requiem to its core.